Pumped Up Kicks
Note: THIS STORY IS WRITTEN IN MY POINT-OF-VIEW OVER A HYPOTHETICAL, YET HIGHLY POSSIBLE, SCENARIO. INFORMATION DISSEMINATED IN THIS STORY MAYBE GRAPHIC/SENSITIVE IN NATURE, AND THE TOPIC MAYBE UNSUITABLE FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS. VIEW AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. Chapter 1: Just Another Day 6:50 A.M. It seemed like any other Friday. After pulling in the east parking lot, I ventured in my red brick school building, the sprawling mass of red, gray, and blue that took up a gigantic section of Center Street. I met my two best friends, Sarah and Libby, at our normal place in C-wing and chatted away while waiting for the first bell to ring. There wasn't anything peculiar about that morning; Libby working on her German homework while Sarah yelled at me for not telling her about some upcoming trip I had to New York the following summer. Yep, normal day. But something that wasn't normal was the feeling of dread that filled the air. I felt myself slouching forward despite having my back leaning up against the lockers. I asked the others if they felt it, which, coming from me, was quite odd. Libby disagreed in a polite manner; Sarah just continued to make fun of me for saying such a stupid thing. I dropped the subject and we resumed our previous conversations. But, deep down, something wasn't right. The anxiety ran deep, and it wasn't about that day's math test. Eventually, the first bell rang, signaling we had five minutes before classes began. Sarah and I parted ways with Libby and I walked Sarah to her Business and Marketing class in upper C-wing, like I always do. After dropping her off, I headed towards the library and took the stairs down to the first level. I took my usual seat at one of the built-in desks at the front end of the room, near the main entrance, and settled in. I took a brief moment to look out the wall of windows to my right that faced the courtyard, and told myself there was nothing to worry about. You'll be fine, ''I told myself. ''It's just another day. Chapter 2: Lockdown 7:30 A.M. It was about eight minutes after school began for the day. I did not have a class scheduled for the first period of the school day, so I normally sat in the library and did homework or watched videos on my laptop. I didn't have much homework the night before, so I cracked open my MacBook and put in my headphones. Because of that, I didn't hear the beep of the P.A. system and the assistant principal make an announcement that the school was in lockdown. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the two kids that were sitting in the couches across the aisle get up and walk away. I shrugged it off. It was normal for people to move. It was strange; I didn't see either of the librarians, Ms. Ford and Mrs. Sivik, at their desks even though they were adamant about staying there nearly all the time in case a student needed help. Again, I shrugged it off. Probably at some meeting, I thought. After about twenty minutes, I noticed something was seriously wrong. I pulled out my earbuds and got up from my chair and looked around the room. It was deserted! This was not normal. There were always at least a few kids scattered about the huge space, and no one seemed to be there. Even the GenYes desk, where students sought help in case their MacBooks broke, was empty. What the hell... I thought. I then glanced beyond the glass doors that led to the cafeteria. And screamed. Chapter 3: A Gruesome Discovery 7:45 A.M. I knew I wasn't seeing things. I knew my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. Seeing the red mess that covered the bottom half of the glass doors....everything suddenly made sense. What DIDN'T make sense was what happened next. Despite my crippling fear of blood, and sudden realization of the gravity of the situation, I walked over to the doors. I HAD to know whose body lay beyond. Whether it was someone I knew, one of my friends, a teacher...I just HAD to know. Within a few seconds, I gained enough distance to see over the blood-covered window and discovered it was the body of my friend Morgan, a very nice yet soft-spoken girl. My mind spun. I felt the floor fall away from under me. For a few seconds, I couldn't move, couldn't react, couldn't breathe. I saw the body of a dead person. My vision soon became clouded. I took a few steps backward, then looked around. Despite now knowing there was a killer somewhere in the school, I couldn't hold back my screams. In full-on panic mode, I screamed while simultaneously sprinting over to the built-in desk where my stuff sat. I began shoving everything that lay out back into my bookbag and felt tears streaming down my face. I didn't bother wiping them away as choked-up sobs began to surface. I had ''to get out of this now prison. Literally, since freshman year my friends and I joked about our school being an inescapable prison. Well, that day had ''finally come. I felt trapped. Somewhere, for some unknown reason, some unknown person was out there, taking more lives. Another realization hit the bottom of my stomach as it occurred to me both Sarah and Libby were in class. "''Shit!" I screamed. Chapter 4: A Great Escape '''8:00 A.M.' I barely had time to recover from my initial shock when I realized I was in deep shit. The panels of glass that overlook the courtyard allow onlookers to look into the adjacent hallway that is lined with the main offices of the school. And I saw someone, a freshman who rode my bus, in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt coming down in the hallway in my direction. In his hands? Well, you can guess. And another thing; it's just as easy for someone in the main hallway to look into the library (my spot, particularly) as it was for me to see him. Category:Hypothetical Stories